Bend Over and Take It

There is a bill called the "Class Action Fairness Act"sailing through Congress that isn't getting a lot ink, but it's potentially devastating (more here) to the ability of plaintiffs to hold corporations accountable for their malfeasance.

If we plugged "Class Action Fairness Act" into our handy, RightWingSpeak Translator, we'd probably get a something like the "Let's Screw The Average American By Siding With Corporate Interests...Again Act". Taking a closer look, we learn that there's nothing 'fair' about the intent of this bill. It's just another attempt, like "The Clean Air Act" and "No Child Left Behind", to convey the opposite of this bill's actual intent. This bill works directly against the ability of a plaintiff and her attorney to pursue a complaint against corporate negligence in a timely and expedient way by forcing Class Action cases to be filed in an already crowded and overloaded federal court system, rather than the state court in the plaintiff's district.

As it stands now, Plaintiffs' attorneys (or, as the wingnuts prefer, trial lawyers... gasp!) have the choice to file a class action in the courts of any state in which the harm in question has occurred. The case is then consolidated in that state's court system with each class member, no matter where they live, represented by the attorneys in that specific courtroom. Opponents of class actions call this "forum shopping", but as I learned during my time working at a class action firm in San Francisco, the decision of one court over another is often driven by the strength of individual plaintiff's cases.

For example, if we had a case against Acme Widget Co. charging that Acme had falsely advertised the capabilities of their widgets, we would look for the plaintiff with the strongest case against Acme, no matter where they were. If they were in Texas, so be it. We never left behind a strong plaintiff because we had the opportunity to make our case in a "friendlier" court. The plaintiff with the stronger case would be named the lead plaintiff, and the case would move on in the court of the lead's district.

A potentially enormous problem looms with this bill:

"Worse still, say the bill's opponents, federal courts often refuse to hear class-action cases submitted by petitioners from multiple states. 'No one wants to file a class-action suit at a federal level because they often get dismissed if they include plaintiffs from a patchwork of different states, all of which have different laws,' explained Jude McCartin, an aide to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who has been a vocal critic of certain sections of the bill. 'There isn't one state law that is applicable, and there is no guidance for federal judges as to where they can apply just one state's laws.'"

As it stands now, state courts can apply their law to the entire class, regardless of where the other plaintiffs reside. To remove this ability by moving the cases to federal court, attorneys will likely be more reluctant to bring broad Class Action complaints against companies, out of the fear that the case will be tossed out on the technicality described above. Both a group of 15 attorney generals and a group of 16 environmental organizations have sent letters to congress urging a vote against this bill, but something tells me that won't really matter to the unthinking right-wing lap dogs of the Republican cogressional majority.

The courts are one of the last modes of redress for the majority of Americans when it comes to gaining a measure of relief from the misdeeds and poor business practices of corporate entities. The voices of a couple hundred thousand wronged individuals (as is often the case, in my experience) are a lot louder than the voice of just one. The ability of plaintiffs to have their cases heard in a timely and expedient manner is vital to stopping potentially dangerous corporate activity (such as local pollution or harmful business practices) and achieving injuctive relief as quickly as possible.

Requiring Class Action complaints to be heard in federal court not only slows down the process, but it takes the option for local remedies out of the hands of the communities local to the problems. Making the process even more difficult than it already is will further remove any incentive for corporations to self-regulate their behavior. If the government won't hold them accountable, and the people can't hold them accountable, why should they care who they shit on?